I am using the 2007 historic park hours for trying to decide on our park days & ADR's for our December trip but I seem to be coming up with alot of days where we are splitting parks.
I don't think we have done this on past trips, we've planned mostly full park days.
We will be there the 13th thru the 20th of December and I am sure as the week wears on closer to the holiday the parks will get more crowded so I want to make sure we get as much done in the first 1/2 of the trip as possible.
How do you do it? Do you plan to spend a full day in the parks or split it up? Or just go where the wind takes you??

RockinRollerMom

05-15-2008, 01:01 PM

We alomst always do 2 parks in one day. We often start out at one park in the morning then end up at the park with EMH in the evening. Sometimes we head back to the resort in the afternoon for a rest/dip in the pool. (Yes, we swam most days on our trip last December.) We also take our ADR's into consideration. Some restaurants are easy to get to whether they are in a park or resort, but others take a little planning. For instance we are going to be trying Boma at AKL next trip. I will make sure that we are at a park that afternoon because it is alot easier to get there from a park than from starting at our resort. I find it better park hopping and I feel like we get more in. Yes, we do spend more time getting from one park to another, but if you utilize the EMH's it is worth it.

Figment104

05-15-2008, 01:05 PM

Generally we just let the wind take us where it will. We usually end up doing two parks in one day with a rest in the afternoon, but more often then not will hit up MK or EPCOT almost every day. MK for the magic and EPCOT for the :marg: in Mexico :cloud9:

Dyanna

05-15-2008, 01:16 PM

We always do 1 park a day this way we get to see as much as possible without wasting time traveling between the other parks. If we have any extra days we usually go back to MK & then decide what we would like to do the last day that we might have missed or would like to do again.

JPooh

05-15-2008, 01:29 PM

We always strategically plan 1 park per day. We adjust our schedule according to EMH.

Von-Drake

05-15-2008, 01:33 PM

We usually plan on full days in the parks. We use our arrival day and departure day to do things outside the parks most of the time.

jans2kids

05-15-2008, 01:38 PM

We almost always do 2 parks in one day. Mosy every day we will take a mid day break and go back swimming and go back to a different park in the evening. Over the days we do maybe 3 EE and 3 EMH. It just doesn't feel so rushed by trying to see the whole par in 1 day, if something is realy crowded we know we have a few more times to possibly ride or see it.

Marker

05-15-2008, 01:50 PM

I really don't remember the last time we spent an entire day in just one park.

I consider EMH, ADR, fireworks/parade times, etc. and make my plan from there.

However, the plan is pretty much which park we're starting our day in. After that, except for ADRs, we just kind of go with the flow.

Obviously, if I'm hoping to make it to a 9:00 Wishes show, we'll move accordingly, but that too is usually just a loose plan. Once the day gets rolling, anything is up for change.

bruin1344

05-15-2008, 02:05 PM

i like to split 2 parks in a day, water parks, mgm, and ak are only half day parks for us anyways, although we usually go to mgm again during the vacation to go on our favorite rides

MNNHFLTX

05-15-2008, 02:52 PM

More often than not we will do 2 parks in a day, especially if one of them is the Magic Kingdom (and it is crowded).

avantgardeinker

05-15-2008, 03:14 PM

We try not to park hop too much because of the amount of time it takes to get from one park to the other. If we hop to another park it's generally because the park we are in is closing and we're heading to another park that is open later. Since AK closes so much earlier than the rest, we try to leave there and go to Epcot or MK or something.

:mickey:

Mousemates

05-15-2008, 05:00 PM

We nearly always do two parks per day...ride alot of stuff (oten per touring plan) in the morning, then head back to the room for a repsite....and then back for another dose in the evening (either a pakr with a late close or evening EMH)

Young@Heart

05-15-2008, 05:32 PM

We never buy park hoppers, so we don't do more than one "park" in a day. But we often do a park for half or 2/3 of a day, then go to DTD or DQ, or we do a water park in the AM and a park at night. This seems to work best for us. :thumbsup:

Polynesian Dweller

05-15-2008, 06:06 PM

Always do two or more per day. The travel time isn't wasted when you take the monorail to Epcot, its a ride in itself. Haven't had a single park day in years.

wire0monkey

05-15-2008, 06:17 PM

We almost always do two parks in one day. We usually go from opening to around 2 or 3 at one park and then take a swim break and the go from 4 or 5 to whenever at the second park.

Jasper

05-15-2008, 06:39 PM

We normally open and close one park each day. However, if one park has an early open or is open later than the park we are in we will plan two parks on that particular day. For example, the Magic Kingdom is usually one of the earliest to open and last to close each day so when we go there that is normally the only park we will do. However, since the Animal Kingdom closes earlier than the others on that day we will hop over to one of the other parks to finish the day.

barnaby

05-15-2008, 06:53 PM

We did 2 parks the first 4 days of our trip, heading to the parks with evening MHs and staying late.
We were tired out on the 5th day and only did 1 park and called it an early nite. Our last day we did MK from 11AM to 3AM without a break.

Aggie97

05-15-2008, 07:43 PM

On most days we do one park. We just don't like to spend much time travelling between parks. We often do hop to a second park that is open later or for evening EMH, though. :mickey:

IloveDisney71

05-15-2008, 09:46 PM

I almost always split my time between parks. I like to take advantage of EMH's at night when I can. Also, if I have dinner ADR's I usually have to switch parks to accomodate those ADR's.

2Epcot

05-16-2008, 12:17 AM

We usually do one park per day on the first round, then later in the week as we go back, we may split days between parks.

dizknee531

05-16-2008, 01:51 AM

If we visit in the winter when the parks aren't open that late, then we spend a full day. if we go in the summer, we take a break mid-afternoon , a pool dip and nap, then back to parks for dinner.:mickey:

mudpuppysmom

05-16-2008, 10:01 AM

We noramlly do one park per day, however DS likes to spend a day and a half at AK and that is usually when we start doing half days here and there.

Day one we always do MGM, then AK on the second day and then AK again the first half of the third day then off to Epcot. The fourth day is either Epcot or MK and then we go from there, sometimes splitting time between those two, but we do not go back to MGM or AK after we're "done" with them. Our last day we always go to MK, so normally our inbetween days are spent at Epcot -- where DS could live if we would let him!!

lightyearfan

05-16-2008, 11:09 AM

well for me and dw we usually spend all day in 1 park except for when we goto AK, we'll usually spend 1/2 the day there go back to our hotel take a dip in the pool, shower then it's off to Epcot for our night cap. it also depends on where we made our ADR'S for, because like so many others we are on the DDP so we kind of pre-plan which park to be at that day due to our ADR'S, but if we are at MK and made an ADR for a TS at Epcot, then we hop the monorail to Epcot go eat then back on the monorail to finish off the night back at MK, this kind of changes things up for us, and it seems to make things seem a little different.

Victor

MississippiDisneyFreak

05-16-2008, 11:14 AM

:) We've never split days in the parks, however on our upcoming Dec. 20-30 trip, we will be leaving the parks a couple of times around 600 or 630 to go to an ADR and late parade at another park, but otherwise no we don't split the days we stay there until bedtime

Charlee

05-16-2008, 11:41 AM

We almost always split our days in the parks as we always tend to spend a morning in one park and then go back to the resort for a lil nap and swim and then go back on evening to either Epcot and MK for a relaxing walk around either park - watching the fireworks or just hitting a few attractions.

MatterhornMiss

05-16-2008, 11:50 AM

When the parks are open longer, I usually enjoy splitting the day, starting at one park shortly after opening, then going back to the resort to rest or swim, and head back to another park after dinner. This works well, particularly for the MK if it is open a few hours after the fireworks. One year in April, it seemed we went to the MK almost every night (it was open until midnight then) after the parade/fireworks and were able to ride all our favorite rides with very little wait.

Gottaluvgoof

05-16-2008, 11:53 AM

We are one park a day guests. We get to the park when it opens, and we're there when it closes. I don't see the need for paying for hoppers and I'm not real fond of waiting for buses. Once I'm there, I'm there for the duration.

iDisney

05-16-2008, 10:14 PM

When we went in January, we had planned on one park each day with a 5th day added on. (I had honestly planned on spending 2 full days in Epcot.) However once we got there, that plan fell apart almost instantly! We ended up park hopping most (if not all) of the days we were there!

dumbo ears

05-16-2008, 10:39 PM

Well ive never been on a trip that weve only gone to 2 parks so I usually like to spend the whole day in one park. But since you are goin for a week id say split them up toward the end of your trip and his your favoirte attatcions.

Mickey91

05-18-2008, 10:34 AM

To really make the most of your time, you need to be in the same park all day. Just getting in and out of the park eats at the time you have, not to mention waiting on the busses/ monorail etc. and travel time. The only time we split a day is when we go to AK, which closes early, and we have one day we split between DHS and EPCOT after already spending a whole day at each.

crltkcagle

05-18-2008, 10:40 AM

We spend a full day at one park. I have younger children so park hopping is too much for us. We have enough going on trying to see all that we can at the park we are at. LOL

*goofy'sgirls*

05-18-2008, 11:00 AM

Well I had this issue come up when planning my first trip last year. And took advice from my fellow Intercotees. We did 2 parks a day with a nap in between. We planned based on EMH so that we would arrive early to the morning parks and arrive alittle later to the evening parks but still have time to do rides and attractions. It worked great and planned my next trip the same way. And it helped with ADR's too. Morning ones in park with EMH and evening ones too. Hope it helps!

kaliepooh

05-18-2008, 12:42 PM

We plan full days in each park. There is so much to see and do in each park. We only get to WDW once each year so we like to get our complete fill. We usually visit each park twice during each visit. We have never bought park hoppers and are usually very satisfied with one park for day. Of course there are still many things we have never seen or experienced in each park.

TikiGoddess

05-18-2008, 09:27 PM

Well I had this issue come up when planning my first trip last year. And took advice from my fellow Intercotees. We did 2 parks a day with a nap in between. We planned based on EMH so that we would arrive early to the morning parks and arrive alittle later to the evening parks but still have time to do rides and attractions. It worked great and planned my next trip the same way. And it helped with ADR's too. Morning ones in park with EMH and evening ones too. Hope it helps!

This is what we usually do too. We love the morning EMH hours, but the morning park usually gets crazy by around lunchtime, so we go back to the resort, rest, have dinner, and then head out to a park for the evening. The midday nap is essential since we go in the summer, with two small children.

This is a great thread... I've been trying to get a loose idea of what parks we'll be doing what days for our 2009 trip -- especially since this is the first time I've been able to plan a trip longer than 3 nights! Our short trips are easy to plan... 8 nights is daunting!

TikiG

tinksmom02

05-18-2008, 09:54 PM

We always get the Park Hoppers, but we never use them. Generally we just gogogo until we're ready to drop at one park and then head back to the resort.

I always PLAN to take midday breaks and to visit another park after the break, but I think we get caught up in the excitement...

Disneyglamour

05-19-2008, 01:05 PM

Personally, I prefer to do one park a day. I used to put AK and DHS in one day but so much has been added to those parks in the last few years that it's hard to fit everything in! But if you had to put two parks together in one day I would suggest getting to AK as soon as it opened and spend late afternoon/evening at DHS.